The Lonely Goddess, Some Called Her
by heterodyne-girl
Summary: Somewhere, in another universe, not too different from one we know, there was a woman.
1. Chapter 1

_Somewhere, in another universe, not too different from one we know, there was a woman. There had been legends about her since nearly the dawn of time._ The Lonely Goddess, _some called her._ The Oncoming Storm_, said others. If asked, she simply told them to call her_ the Doctor. _Most people would never know she existed. Others would meet her once and remember it forever. Some, if they were lucky, would even travel with her for a time._

_She hadn't always looked the way she did at any given time. Once she'd had a scarf more than eighteen feet long, another time she always had a sprig of celery with her, and maybe some time she might have a fondness for bowties._

_Once, she had traveled with a boy. _Ross Tyler_, she could hear herself saying,_ we have anywhere and anywhen in the universe. Where to next? _She had worn leather when they met, and kept her hair cut short, and had been bitter and broken and so very lonely. They found another friend, an ex-Time Agent from the 51st century, who'd flirted with everyone they met. They'd left her behind, though, after something went wrong. She'd changed after that. Not so lonely anymore, with Ross and Jackie with her. Ross stayed, promised his forever to her, but he was gone now. Trapped in another world. She tried for so long to find her way to him, but it could end everything in every universe, or make it so reality had never happened at all. They said goodbye as she destroyed a sun, and that was the end of their story._

_Except it wasn't, not quite._

_Because one day, while escaping from a family who could find her anywhere and anywhen that ever was, an alarm went off, warning of a crack in the universe just a little to the left of last Monday._

_She had a friend with her, Martin Jones. He was almost a doctor himself, but had come with her for a time. He would leave eventually. They all did, in the end._

_The Doctor screamed again. To escape from the family of blood, who could find her anywhere and anywhen, she had changed herself. Changed every cell in her body. To escape, she'd become human._

_So an alarm went off, but there was nobody to know what it meant. The ship, the TARDIS, was crashing as it landed itself, but with nobody now who knew how to fly it, there was nobody to avoid the crack. To protect itself and the people inside - the two humans inside- it slipped a second above the crack and into another world._

_A world the Doctor knew._

_No. A world the Doctor_ had known.

_As the ship searched for a place to land, it discovered a mind it knew. _

_The Doctor hadn't lost all of her memories when she became human, though it was close. The TARDIS created a life for her, and gave her a reason to be where she was._

"Hello, I'm Doctor Jane Tyler. From Torchwood, back in England. They sent me over here, thought maybe you could use a bit of help with all these new meta-humans around. Is that what you're calling them? 'Meta-humans'? I mean, they're not really born with it or anything, are they, they'd said it was nanobots. Bit odd though, I mean, nanites like those shouldn't be around for a good century yet. You know, you look a bit familiar, do I know you?"


	2. Chapter 2

"I don't think we've met before, no… I'm Superman. It's nice to meet you, Dr. Tyler. Every bit helps, certainly. What do you do at Torchwood? I can show you to the R&D labs, if you want, they're over this way."

Jane looked where he was pointing, but replied, still slightly distracted, "Ah, actually, I'd like to be out helping in person more, if that's all right. Oh, right, this is Martin. He was almost a doctor, but things happened. Well, four things and a lizard, but anyway, he can be loads of help."

Superman smiled. "You're not the first Torchwood's sent here, I'm sure you know, and all three of them said the same thing. This way, I'll show you where they were sent. I'm not sure if any of them are in right now, they might all be out on missions, but I'm sure you'll see them all eventually. Do you know them already?"

Jane shook her head. "No, Martin and I are new, they left before we met."

Superman stopped. "Here we are. Nobody else here right now, though. Go ahead to the computer, Oracle's probably getting you two set up."

Jane stepped forward, pulling on her glasses with one hand, as eager as always to look at new technology. Bending forward over the keypad, she didn't see him coming.

He saw her, though. It was never particularly quiet in the Watchtower, and with all the new heroes less than ever, but for a second, he thought you could have heard a pin drop.

He tried to say something, but couldn't. It couldn't have been her, anyway. Silly to think that. Lots of people wore big coats. He'd seen someone the other day with a dark green trenchcoat the exact same shade as their wings. Just a coincidence.

She turned around.

_Doctor._

The word fell from his lips before he knew what he was saying. It was her. That face, that hair, even the same style clothing right down to the shoes.

"Sorry, do I know you? Doctor Jane Tyler, from Torchwood. But I suppose you knew that already. You're one of the ones Torchwood sent out before us, right? I mean, that accent says London, and you knew I was a doctor. Who're you?"

Ross blinked. "Ah… yeah, I'm from Torchwood. Ross Tyler. And you're…" He trailed off, looking at Martin for a minute, before his eyes snapped back to Jane.

"Oh, this is Martin Jones. He's from Torchwood too. Lots of us here now. S'pose it's because the nanite cloud didn't spread too far beyond the US, so the only new meta-humans are the ones who've traveled back to England or where-have-you since. Ross Tyler, hm? I had a friend with that name once. Died, though, in that big mess with Canary Wharf. Martin's cousin, too. 'S why we joined Torchwood. Ah… do I have something on my face?"

Ross jumped slightly. "Sorry, no, you just look like an old friend of mine. Called herself the Doctor, or Jane Smith sometimes. Common name, I know, but… well, she was a very uncommon woman," he said with a bitter half-smile. "I… I just thought you were her for a minute. Couldn't have been, though. She died at Canary Wharf, too. Funny coincidence, I suppose."


End file.
